Balancing act: May Student of the Month makes the grade in classroom, gym

Jared Field | The Clio MessengerBailey Gardner, 12, of Vienna Twp., practices at the AGA Gymnastics Training Center in Mundy Township 25 hours per week. The May student of the month is carries a 3.8 grade point average at Genesee Christian School in Burton. Earlier this month, Bailey placed first overall in the level 9 Eastern National Gymnastics Championship in Tupelo, MS.

VIENNA TOWNSHIP, Michigan -- Balancing sports and academics is even harder than it looks.

Bailey Gardner, 12, devotes 25 hours per week to gymnastics and, with the time that's left, still manages to maintain a 3.8 grade point average.

"I try to get most of my work done at school," said Bailey, a seventh-grader at Genesee Christian School in Burton.

What's left of her school work is finished upon returning home around 8 o'clock each night after four hours in the gym.

It's hard work, she admits, but this little girl is dreaming big dreams.

"I work really hard to reach my goal, which is to go to the Olympics," said Bailey, whose hero is gold-medal-winning Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson. "You have to work really hard to get there."

And she's well on her way.

Staff photo | Tim JagieloGardner, pictured here on the balance beam, placed first in the uneven bars and beam and second in the vault. In April, she finished third overall in the regional meet held in Muncie, IN. Bailey has future plans that include college and the Olympics.

Bailey won the level 9 state meet earlier this year and placed third in the regionals in Indiana last month.

On May 8, Bailey, who lives in Vienna Township, won the level 9 Eastern National Gymnastics Championship in Tupelo, Miss. She placed first in both the uneven bars and the balance beam on her way to the title.

"(Going to Mississippi) was awesome," said Bailey's father, Steve, a lifelong Clio resident. "I knew she could do it if she did what she was capable of doing."
Still, Gardner is most proud of his daughter's perseverance in the classroom.

"It's unbelievable that a kid can do that," he said. "It takes a lot of hard work."

Julie Fair, a gymnastics instructor for more than 20 years and Bailey's coach, hasn't been surprised by her success.

"I knew that she had it in her," said Fair, who works at AGA Gymnastics Training Center in Mundy Township. "That was what we've been training for all year. We talk a lot about when you're given the opportunity, to make the most of it. You never know when you're going to get back in that situation, no matter how good you are.

"She seized the day."

Fair said that Bailey is a unique combination of native ability and work ethic.
"Usually when you have a kid who is talented ... a lot of times they don't want to work hard because things come easy to them and they don't have to work hard. But, she is both. She is one of the hardest workers in the gym and one of the most talented."

And Dad is still trying to figure her out.

"I'm not sure where she gets it," he said. "I was an athlete, but nothing like she is."
Bailey, who got her start in gymnastics as a 4-year-old at Clio Gymnastics, is also active in the youth group at North Flushing Baptist Church.